{"id":14078,"date":"2021-08-11T12:47:01","date_gmt":"2021-08-11T12:47:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.medicalbillersandcoders.com\/blog\/?p=14078"},"modified":"2025-10-02T06:58:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T06:58:13","slug":"systematically-reduce-your-accounts-receivable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.medicalbillersandcoders.com\/blog\/systematically-reduce-your-accounts-receivable\/","title":{"rendered":"Systematically Reduce Your Accounts Receivable"},"content":{"rendered":"

Accounts receivable management plays a key role in having stable financial health for your practice. Accounts receivable is nothing but the amount owe to you by insurance companies and patients. As the number of days increases to collect this amount, the chances of collecting this amount also decrease. <\/span><\/p>\n

Accounts receivable are classified in a number of days i.e., 0-30 days, 31-60 days, 61-90, 91-120, 121, and above. You will be surprised to know that only 20% of the amount got collected if your AR<\/a> is over 90 days bucket. <\/span><\/p>\n

Your team\u2019s inefficiency to collect outstanding amounts could lead to not collecting at all. In this blog, we shared some of the common reasons why accounts receivable increases over time and also discussed how you can reduce them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Common Accounts Receivable Issues<\/span><\/h2>\n

Not Appealing Denied Claim<\/span><\/h3>\n

If your medical billing and coding team is not enough experienced and is not equipped with specialty specific knowledge, your lots of claims will get denied. The worst part is most the practices won\u2019t track their denials, resulting in loss of money. <\/span><\/p>\n

When an insurance company denies your claim, they will provide a denial reason for that claim. Your billing team should operate in a systematic way where they should track every claim, identify denial reason, analyze denial, and appeal denied claim on a timely basis. <\/span><\/p>\n

When you are not sure, you can always pick the phone and call the insurance company and try to understand the denial reason as well as ask for help in addressing this denial. <\/span><\/p>\n

If you are properly tracking denials and appealing them on time, you will be able to collect a maximum portion of your accounts receivable portion.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Not Verifying Patient Benefits<\/span><\/h3>\n

The eligibility and benefits verification process have a lot of importance in accounts receivable management. When you verify eligibility and benefits for your patients, you get a complete idea about how much insurance will pay, what would be patient portion, and if any prior authorization is needed. <\/span><\/p>\n

With eligibility and benefits verification, your team can share financial estimates with your patients, your patients will be well aware of their insurance coverage and they will pay their portion at the time of service only. <\/span><\/p>\n

You can discuss alternate financial arrangements with patients if their insurance is not covering the procedure. No one wants uncommunicated patient statements after a medical procedure is done.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Collection Culture<\/span><\/h3>\n

Medical practices<\/a> often shy away from collecting patient portions at the time of visit because they feel their purpose is to help patients. They feel customer service and collection are two different departments which require a different approaches. <\/span><\/p>\n

You will be able to provide excellent customer service only if your patients are well informed. They should be aware of procedures to be done, financials involved, their insurance coverage, and their own contribution. <\/span><\/p>\n

The patient understands all money owed, and your practice has more money available to improve the patient experience. Many practices lack the tools to collect unpaid balances in an efficient, timely manner. Done correctly, instituting a collection culture can increase patient satisfaction.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Reducing Accounts Receivable<\/span><\/h3>\n

As discussed, accounts receivable is not a separate function, it\u2019s a crucial part of the medical billing process. You will be able to reduce the accounts receivable portion if you include the following steps in your medical billing functions:<\/span><\/p>\n